Origins of controversial North Carolina bill traced to pressure by gay lobby in Charlotte

North Carolina’s House Bill 2 (HB2) would likely never have seen the light of day if the gay lobby hadn’t pushed the city of Charlotte to include bathroom access for transgender persons in the city’s ordinance granting new legal protections for gay, lesbian and transgender people.

Charlotte’s City Council passed the ordinance on Feb. 22, 2016.

Charlotte’s City Council votes on the non-discrimination ordinance on Feb. 22.

Gov. Pat McCrory said the bathroom provision would result in “immediate” action by legislators. Without the bathroom provision, McCrory and the state’s Republican leadership most likely would have had no problem with Charlotte’s new ordinance.

“Bathroom access for ‘transgender persons’ was at the top of the agenda for the activist left for years here in Charlotte,” the sistertoldjah.com website noted on Sept. 15.

“When the City Council first took up this issue in 2015, the Democrat majority couldn’t agree on the particulars – in particular as it related to bathroom access – and the issue was shelved.

“Fast forward a few months later to a new mayor (Jennifer Roberts) and a couple of new (Democrat) council members, and in February of 2016, they passed the NDO with the all-important ‘must-have’ bathroom provision. This in spite of the fact that the primary objection to the ordinance from citizens was including that provision. This in spite of the fact that the Governor himself (a former mayor of Charlotte) and a number of state legislators – some in leadership positions – practically begged them to keep the bathroom provision out of the ordinance. Leave it out, they said in so many words, and we won’t take action in response.”

The website went on to note that the Charlotte City Council “deliberately” made the new ordinance effective the first week in April, three weeks before a the state legislature would meet for its next regular session.

“They knew that the only way the state legislature could stop the bill from going into effect was to call an ‘expensive’ special March session, and the city council knew the media would kick up a fuss if they did. And that’s exactly what happened. The result was HB2,” sistertoldjah.com said.

“During all this, the Charlotte Observer – along with their sister paper the Raleigh News and Observer as well as broadcast news outlet WRAL – led the way in pushing for the Charlotte ordinance to pass and relentlessly slammed the state legislature for responding with HB2. They mocked opponents’ legitimate concerns about what opening up women’s restrooms and fitting rooms to men would mean, and in one now-infamous piece, the majority-male editorial team at the CO actually told women and children that it was time to ‘overcome their discomfort’ over male genitalia being in their locker rooms.”

The website went on to note that the Observer “was also a proponent of boycotts and economic sanctions, even though they admitted to being ‘conflicted’ because they knew it would hurt innocent people by way of lost jobs and revenue for the state – not to mention be a blow to NC’s hospitable reputation.”

“But here’s the kicker” sistertoldjah.com continued: “After an endless amount of editorials and opinion pieces disguised as ‘objective’ reporting over a period of several months where women, men, parents, sexual assault victims were portrayed as bigots and homophobes with no legitimate concerns, and after the NBA pulled the All-Star game out of Charlotte, and the NCAA and ACC pulled several championship games out of North Carolina over HB2, the Observer got around to unwittingly admitting Wednesday night that the bathroom provision of Charlotte’s original ordinance was never needed.

“Editorial page editor Taylor Batten started out by talking about how the state is now paying the price for the ‘imaginary threats/ghosts’ that supporters of HB2 – including survivors of rape – worried about. Then, he got around to the inadvertent admission: He finished his piece by complaining about how Gov. McCrory ‘didn’t have the spine’ to oppose state legislators who ‘wanted a wedge issue’ (even though they specifically asked Charlotte to NOT include the bathroom provision to avoid the state having to respond), and then mentioned again how proponents of common sense bathroom laws were making North Carolina suffer for a ‘manufactured fear of mythical predators.’ ”

Sistertoldjah.com continued: “Here’s the funny thing. . . . I’ve had members of the transgender community tell me privately that they had had very few issues over the years before any ordinance was passed using the bathroom corresponding with their gender identity and did not like the fact that the activist left were using them and in the process making it harder for them because now everyone would now be aware of it, sparking concern.

“In other words, they didn’t need that ‘special bathroom protection’ in the ordinance. It was unnecessary. ‘We were getting along just fine without it,’ some have told me. . . . So if they were getting along ‘fine without it’ and using the bathroom of their choice before the ordinance was passed then … there was no need to include bathroom protections in the first place in the ordinance.”

“Let’s break it down: If there’s no need for the bathroom provision in the ordinance, there’s no need for Charlotte to include it in their final NDO. If it’s not included in the final NDO, then the state legislature leaves them alone. If the state legislature leaves them alone, then there’s no special session, no HB2. If there’s no HB2, then there are no lawsuits, no calls for economic sanctions by the activist left, no loss of revenue, jobs, concerts, events, business expansion, reputation, etc.”